Rating: 
Summary: Decent Introduction to QM
Review: This is a good place to start studying QM after being introduced to some basic quantum physics from a modern physics text such as Serway or Eisberg and Resnick. I especially like the treatment of the uncertainty principle done in this text and many of the side comments made are very interesting. It is not perfect however, as there are no solutions to problems and some of the later chapters have errors. You can download an errata list at the author's web site though and many of the problems are the types that you can be fairly certain if you have the right answer or not. If you want to just read it and not work many problems it can get a little annoying because in deriving some results Griffiths will often say something like "and because of the theorem you proved in problem 2.4, we see that..." This book is also a bit overpriced in my mind, but so are almost all of the serious intro QM texts. I've seen other reviewers saying that Griffiths is not very rigorous and I believe that these reviewers must be either mathematicians or people who already knew the subject before reading the book. It is fine on the rigor for an intro text in my mind and since it is a standard QM text in many undergraduate physics programs it looks as though some people agree with me. In many ways I like Liboff better than this text, yet Griffiths is better than Liboff in many ways also. Two two texts complement each other yet put a dent in your wallet. If only Dover could get ahold of the two!
Rating: 
Summary: Book of choice for my undergrad course
Review: I've been using this book as the text for my undergraduate quantum course for several years. It is far superior to the books I used ~25 years ago when I first studied quantum as an undergrad.Griffiths' strategy of using chapters1&2 to review probility and make student's comfortable with the mathematical machinery of QM, then reviewing Linear Algebra leading up to Hilbert spaces in Chapter 3, before starting anew with the postulates of QM makes a lot of pedagogical success. Typically, at least half my undergrad students need the math review. All of them have seen Shroedinger's Eq in a Modern Physics class that comes before QM, but without much motivation. I find Griffiths' motivation of the postulates far more intuitive than the more common "let's see what properties a QM wave equation-equivalent might have" approach. Other texts tend to give the axioms short shrift, but not Griffiths. I'm an experimentalist, but I really groove with this book that presents more of a theorists approach. I do find I need to supplement my class lectures with illustrative examples to provide my students with balance, but it would be harder to add the theory into other books which have more examples, but gloss over the theory. This is a physicist's QM book. If you are an engineer or chemist who just wants to learn to do plug and chug problems, look elsewhere. Several ace students (including a former student of mine) complain the book is not sufficiently advanced. If undergrads are ready for Sakurai, and have the sophistication for a higher level approach, all the more power to them! However, the goal of an *undergraduate* text is to prepare students for QM at the level of Sakurai. There is a reason that most undergrad courses don't use graduate texts. The problems are excellent, though most students will find them time consuming. They are an integral part of Griffiths' approach. Former students who have gone on to top-notch grad schools tell me that the doing the HW problems were important for preparing themselves for graduate QM. I know of no better undergrad QM class text, though it may not be the easiest to use for students who wish to learn without the guidance of a professor.
Rating: 
Summary: Quantum Mechanics For Dummies
Review: I can't understand why Mr. Griffiths' undergraduate physics books are so popular. The low intellectual level of his writing can only discourage more advanced students, yet the physics is so watered down that you won't learn much anyways. His books read like a "Physics For Dummies" series. Griffiths' Quantum Mechanics book continues in this tradition. He introduces Schroedinger's Equation on the FIRST page without giving any of the traditional "plausibility arguments". He bypasses any discussion of the Old Quantum Theory (Bohr's Correspondence Principle and the Bohr-Summerfeld quantization conditions). He gives a watered down introduction to the Dirac formalism which fails to adequately explain Dirac's measurement theory and such important concepts as simultaneous eigenkets and non-commuting observables. There are innumerable superior QM books at the undergraduate level. Save your money and forget about Griffiths.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad, pretty dull
Review: I have read the first 4 chapters of the 1st Ed, and carefully looked at the 2nd. The book is an introduction to wave mechanics, starting with the Schrodinger Eq on the first page! It feels like he doesn't begin at the begining. He should at least give brief comments on the development of quantum ideas (both wave and matrix) and JUSTIFY why the wave approach is more suited as an introduction. What are the advantages and disadvantages?
All these jumps add up: when you try to work the problems you are working with wavefunctions like you've known them all your life! One could find this and that, but I was never sure how the results could be used (in an experimental setting for example). What system does this wavefunction represent, or at least approximate, give me some motivation for working on a problem for almost an hour.
I would also say the book is dull, because the author explains every single math step he takes. Sometimes it is helpful, but most of the time it kills the thrill. But wait, don't think that means he takes the same attitude everywhere: in chapter 3 you'll find plenty of math rushed. In the 2nd Ed. the author breaks some of the more elementary part of Ch. 3 into an appendix, but doesn't really improve on the writing. Apperantly it is believed that students of physics have never heard of seperation of variables(so he walks through it) but live in complex vector spaces(where he starts running)! The 2nd Ed. does add 2-3 more examples in each chapter; that should save some problem solving time. But I am afraid important things such as properties of the wavefunction are still left as excercises. I don't think it's THAT bad because it does take every step, but again he doesn't know where to walk and where to run; which leaves the average student generally bored and sometimes confused. I think things mentioned above should be improved on. Don't think Schuam's outline book will help you much, that book solves problems of a more general nature.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent introductory text book if you want to learn
Review: I used this text book for my undergraduate quantum mechanics class. In that class, we covered basically everything in Griffiths. I have since gone on to graduate school. I have found myself very well prepared and I still use Griffiths as a reference because it explains basic ideas and basic problems better than most other text books. More importantly, it provided me with a good foundation for further study. This text book is a great introductory text book. It is a text book for students for whom quantum mechanics is a new subject. It is not a text book for people who already know any significant amount of quantum mechanics, nor is it a great text to use for independent study (unless you work the problems and have some way of checking yourself.) Shankar is too advanced for most students new to the subject. It's also too much material to cover in a standard two semester course where the material is completely new. The only school I know of which uses it is Yale, and they count on students having a stronger background than most students at most schools have. Moreover, I know from personal experience that teachers at Yale focus on getting students to calculate the right answer rather than developing a solid understanding of the ideas behind the physics. It's also too much material to cover in a standard two semester course where the material is completely new. Griffiths is designed such that it can be used for the quantum mechanics classes at most universities -- ie, if students haven't had every other physics class before they use this book or if some of their background is a little weak, they aren't screwed. This may not agree with some people's notions of how physics should be taught, but the reality is that you can't teach every physics class as if the students had already mastered every subject except that one. This is the reality at most universities. The fact that this book is accessible does not make it bad. Physics is a wonderful, beautiful subject and we're being really stupid if we judge how "advanced" a book is by how difficult it is to understand. This is a suicidal attitude for our field. I've been reading physics books for a long time, and most of the ones which are difficult to read are difficult because they're not well written, not because the material is inherently difficult. This book also cannot compensate for its misuse or for bad teaching. When I took the class, the teacher assigned some of the basic problems and some of the difficult problems. That way we made sure we knew the basics before we moved on to the difficult problems. If you're only doing the simple problems, it's your fault you're not getting anything out of it. If you're only doing the computationally difficult problems, you're missing some beautiful, simple examples. The physics is neither more real nor more important if it takes you a day to calculate rather than ten minutes. This is a problem-centered book, but honestly, that's the way most of us learn. We don't remember things we read as well as we remember things we do. Similarly, new notation is not introduced until later because ideas are being developed first. Introducing too many things at once does not facilitate learning, only frustration. I suggest the people who think they already understand all of the ideas consider what Feynmann said -- "Nobody really understands quantum mechanics." If you want answers, look them up. If you want to learn, use this book.
Rating: 
Summary: A poorly organized introduction
Review: I had previously written a review of this text based upon my experiences with it first semester, dealing mostly with chapters 1-4. Upon further reading of the book and comparison to various other texts (the Baym, Sakurai and Shankar, specifically), I have decided that I need to rewrite my review. First off, the good side: If you're interested in a wave mechanics approach to learning quantum mechanics, this book isn't horrible. You certainly learn a lot about solving differential equations, although you are never asked to solve any yourself. Also, the problems for the students to work range from the insanely trivial to the intriguingly difficult. Now for the bad part... Well, the problem with those worked problems is that there is a lot of important stuff in the problems, and Griffiths assumes you have worked every single problem. This wouldn't be an issue, except most of the chapters have over 50 problems, and the odds that you did the right problem you need when he references that problem three chapters later is pretty slim. Also, he does not introduce you to the Dirac notation or the linear algebra approach to quantum mechanics until the third chapter, after which he promptly discards that powerful tool in favor of the way he had been going, which is with wave mechanics. So he deprives the readers of knowledge of a remarkably useful language to discuss quantum mechanics. He begins with the Schrodinger equation, without any motivation at all, and proceeds from there. He could start out talking about two level systems, the collapse of the state vector, eigenvalue measurements and all that long before getting into infinite-dimensional systems, but he seems to think that solving a differential equation without explaining what the Schrodinger equation actually is (the Hamiltonian operator) or giving any idea of its physical significance. Some problems are absurdly ambiguous to the point that you really wonder what exactly you're supposed to do, and the working of nontrivial examples is few and far between (with exceptions being the hydrogen atom and the raising and lowering operators for the various applications of those). Because I don't want to conclude being completely negative, I would like to point out that the sections on approximation methods are very good and easy to follow. I think everyone else put it best when they said that this is quantum mechanics for those with no mathematical inclination, and if you are a physics major with no mathematical inclination, I have to question your choice of study. For those serious about learning quantum mechanics, purchase the Shankar, it's cheaper and much more fulfilling.
Rating:
Summary: Perfect companion to more difficult texts
Review: This introductory text by Griffiths has two major advantages: first it is exceedingly interesting to read, at such an extent one could believe the material is easy. Exercises are challenging enough to show it is just an impression. Second, the text covers a rather big amount of the (non-relativistic) theory, in a concision which is exemplar. It is a short text, which travels in the corners of the field: quantum statistics, solid state physics, perturbation theories, scattering... Of course the counterpart is those topics aren't dealt with at depth. This is a book to see things, before to work on them. For all those reasons, it is a very, very bad reference, but it is not its purpose. For example, the bra and ket formalism is introduced a bit lately, and its use is not stressed. The functional notation for what is currently referred to as |n, l, m> conceals the power of Dirac notations. Tensor product of Hilbert space are completely omitted, thus obscuring the (short but important) section on angular momenta, especially their addition. However, following the book's spirit, you have an opportunity to see Clebsch-Gordan coefficients at work, with their pretty cascading tables. The book is accessible without serious prerequisites, not even in electromagnetism, you just need to know the basis of calculus. Therefore it is the text to get if as a beginner you want to get acquainted with this fundamental piece of physics, along with learning your first physical theories (mechanics or electromagnetism). For others, it is useless to they who ever know pretty much of the theory, even as a review. To students who encounter this strange world for the first time, but with a fierce amount of classical knowledge on their back, I recommend it either as a companion to a more demanding detailed text--Shankar seeming the perfect pick--or as the only text if tremendous amount of personal work is to be furnished to fill in and explore by oneself what is missing. I wouldn't rely too much on it however.
Rating:
Summary: aesthetics
Review: Decent, if fairly basic, introduction to Q.M. However...This textbook is without a doubt the most beautiful textbook I have ever seen. The cover is quality black leather with that inquisitive cat embossed in gold on the front and a similarly gold embossed dead cat on the back. Nice touch for a Quantum Mechanics book. I actually used a different book for my intro QM class, Liboff, which was not good at all. Use Sakurai if you can handle the math. I bought this book from a friend just because I liked the way it looks. I have enjoyed perusing it since then. Just Beautiful
Rating:
Summary: A very readable introduction to QM
Review: This book does what it was designed to do - introduce the reader to quantum mechanics by connecting familiar newtonian mechanics to the strange world of the quantum. At 300 something pages it can't cover everything and smartly doesn't try. It gives lots of pointers to more advanced material and hints at features and concepts that are not covered. It has 2 failings as a classroom text. The dearth of examples and the expectation that you will read through *Every* problem whether assigned or not. A motivated teacher can fix this by pointing out those keys concepts and formula that are buried in the problems. But not all teachers are caring or capable. The book really falls down as a self-study text. There are no solutions to the problems so you have absolutely no feedback as to whether you are learning anything or not. The problems also take huge leaps from trivial to nearly impossible without help and the one,two or three stars are not a reliable guide. My teacher tried to supplement the book with reading from Cohen-Tannoudji but that just lost us all in the notation, unfamiliar style and equations referenced from sections, which wouldn't happen if we actually used the entire book. Griffiths writes well and nearly always explains what he choses to say clearly but doesn't always say enough even for a good student. He needs to add about 5
0 pages of worked examples and a partial answer to all the key problems. When my teacher gave partial answers the book was 200% more effective but he only did so 20% of the time (teachers are busy you know).
Rating:
Summary: Powerful book, but have a reference handy
Review: I used this in my Intro to Quantum Class a few years ago and found while problems in the book were great at making you think about the material, the book lacked useful examples, and if I wasn't using it in conjunction with the course itself, it would have been almost impossible. That being said, the fact that it is not loaded down with examples, and is written at an somewhat more advanced level, it has far better range then just an introduction. Once you use it, you will keep it on your shelf for easy access.
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